Udom students develop AI business assistant for traders

Arusha. Students at the University of Dodoma's Information and Communication Technology (ICT) department have unveiled a pioneering Artificial Intelligence (AI) programme designed to ease business transactions for traders.

This yet-to-be-named programme offers a one-stop solution for SMEs, automating tasks like record-keeping, calculations, book balancing, and generating reports.

"The programme assists small business owners in managing their digital operations without prior business knowledge," explains Ms Rose Joseph, head of the ICT department.

She was speaking during the 4th e-Government Annual General Meeting held at the Arusha International Conference Centre, with Udom being among the sponsors of the event.

Apart from the AI in business programme, the Dodoma-based higher institution of learning is also coming up with several digital inventions aimed at solving a myriad of cybersecurity concerns in the country.

On the other hand, the University of Dodoma emerged as the overall winner of the “Cyber Champions” competition for the year 2024 during the recent event coordinated by the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA).

The competition involved 705 participants from more than 40 institutions of higher learning, and out of the 50 candidates that entered the finals, 31 of them were students of the University of Dodoma.

The deputy minister for State, Office of the President - Public Service Management and Good Governance, Mr Ridhiwani Kikwete, who closed the three-day meeting, called for more research on cybersecurity and digital transactions.

For his part, the director general of the e-government agency, Mr Benedict Ndomba, said the meeting participants have reached a series of recommendations, among them ten important issues they intend to deal with before their next gathering.

They are setting out to work against all types of cyber intrusions and attacks, unauthorised access to networks and theft of employee or customer information, online financial fraud, website defacement, web application attacks, and system penetration.